Pummelled Indonesian resort island between Bali and Lombok has more misery piled on its tourism industry
- Gili Air saw large sections of its ring road fall into the sea and its beach left covered in rubbish after a tropical cyclone swept through on Christmas Day
- Compounding matters is the off-putting sight of dozens of rundown villas and small hotels that were abandoned during the pandemic
Gili Air – a popular resort island in the Lombok Strait, between the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Bali – was in bad shape before Christmas, and that was before Tropical Cyclone Ellie swept through.
On Christmas Day, Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that five cities and districts in West Nusa Tenggara province, which contains Gili Air and Lombok, had been affected by adverse weather the previous day, before Cyclone Ellie crossed the Timor Strait and made landfall in Western Australia.
Flooding, a tornado, pummelling rains and strong winds damaged over 220 houses and toppled thousands of trees in Lombok.
Tidal waves also hit Mataram, Lombok’s capital, but the most serious damage was caused on Gili Air, where large sections of its ring road were battered by tidal waves and fell into the sea, and the island’s beach was left covered in plastic rubbish and construction debris.
On the east coast of the 15 square kilometre (6 square mile) island, waves also washed away hundreds of metres of sea wall and footpaths, leaving only a perilously thin strip of soil between the ocean and a newly built restaurant and bar.
